Peking Duk: Remix Interviews the Australian Duo Heading Back to New Zealand for R&V

  Off the back of their enormous set at Coachella, the Peking Duk boys Adam Hyde and Reuben Style returned briefly to New Zealand for a stint at Deep Hard ‘N’ Funky Music Festival. Having smashed the Kiwi charts with their singles ‘High’ and ‘Take Me Over’ this year, they’re now gearing up for a mammoth set at Rhythm and Vines. They tell Isabelle Truman about what fans can expect and what makes R&V special. Is your life just a blur of airports and festivals at the moment? Adam Hyde: Pretty much, yeah! We did one over in America about two weeks ago and then we flew straight back to Splendour in Australia and now we’re flying to Lollapalooza, then we fly to Los Angeles for High Summer, then we’re going to Canada. It’s festival after festival on festival at the moment. Was Coachella a stand out from the rest? Reuben Styles: Coachella is everything you want it to be and more. It’s a proper experience and the vibe there is really fun. Another cool festival we did was Electric Forest in Michigan, which was literally in the middle of a forest among these huge tall trees. When the sun went down it just lit up and was this psychedelic bush rave, with a really cool line-up. You’re coming back to our shores to play at Rhythm and Vines this year. I saw that you played at their BW Festival last year. How did you find that? AH: BW was sick last year, the crowd was completely nuts, but we’re stoked to be on the Rhythm lineup. Rhythm is like a New Zealand treasure, man. We’re going to try to take it to the next level at Rhythm and Vines this year, for sure.

Will you get a chance to stick around and see some of the festival/other artists? AH: We’ll definitely be able to check out whoever is on the same night as us, but then we’ll have to fly back to Australia, unfortunately. But I mean, who knows, maybe I’ll stick around - miss the flight and hide from our manager. You were just here performing at Deep Hard ‘N’ Funky. Why do you love playing in New Zealand? What keeps you coming back? AH: We love New Zealand; it’s honestly like a second home. New Zealanders definitely know how to party, which always makes for a good show. The crowd is always the sweatiest, loosest, best people. No lie! What’s special about New Year’s Eve gigs? RS: I think it’s the vibe of the crowd, they really let go and everyone’s trying to hook up with everyone, which is always fun. Of course then there’s the countdown, the resolutions, everything like that. A lot of people say New Years is shit but I highly disagree. So, what are your New Year’s resolutions then? AH: I’ve never really had one, eh! Last year I was like ‘you know what, I’m gonna start exercising’, and I actually do that to this day, so I guess I stuck to that! So this year, maybe it’ll be to party less and work harder. RS: To put chili oil on absolutely everything, including my banana shake.

What can people expect from your New Year’s show? Will it be a bit different to the usual Peking Duk? RS: For sure. We’ll bring some guests out, we’ll bring an amazing light show and we’ll bring lots of sweat. Your new single ‘Say My Name’ came out a couple of weeks ago. Tell us a bit about how the song came about? AH: It came together really naturally and quick, it was awesome. We were playing Stereosonic in Melbourne and we didn’t really sleep so we were still a bit drunk. Ben Joseph,who sings on the track, was staying at my house in Sydney at the time and on the plane home we were talking about how good a song would be with a really simple drum beat at the beginning. Like Rick Rubin vibes, Artic Monkeys influence. As soon as we got home we just decided to give it a crack and it all came together really quickly. At a festival, if you could have any artist in the world to be headlining on the same night as you guys, who would it be? AH: I’m gonna say Notorious B.I.G, definitely. I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff lately. I mean, I’ve always loved him, when I was in high school he was all I listened to, but I’ve been listening back a lot and he’s the best. WHEN: Tuesday 29th December 2015 – Friday 1st January 2016 WHERE: Waiohika Estate, Gisborne TICKETS: On sale now at rhythmandvines.co.nz